Los Angeles officials say that crime in 2017 declined by 20% compared to the previous year due to more police patrols in the county, but what about police misconduct statistics in 2017?

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department gave a news conference earlier this week, where it unveiled a 20% decline in homicide across the county thanks to fewer gang-related crimes and more proactive police strategies in the area.

Los Angeles county sheriff Jim McDonnell said homicides decreased from 210 in 2016 to 167 through Dec. 26., with gang-related deaths accounting for the vast majority of homicides in the county.

Even areas that are notorious for their most violent crimes, notably Compton, the Lynwood area and East L.A., have seen a significant decrease in homicides in 2017 – a 46% decline.

Undoubtedly, a secure environment in Los Angeles is critical to the safety of local residents, but do the ends justify the means?

Our police misconduct attorneys at JML Law wonder: could more police officers on the streets of Los Angeles, who are supposed to protect LA residents, lead to more police misconduct cases such as police brutality, unlawful arrests, and wrongful convictions?

Crimes are down, police misconduct is up

During the press conference, the LA county sheriff credited less gang activity and lower crime levels to police being “proactive” and “engaging in intervention activity.”

In over 35 years of litigating police misconduct cases, our best police misconduct lawyers at JML Law know that “engaging in intervention activity,” and thousands of overly-suspicious police patrolling the streets of Los Angeles can be a recipe for disaster.

Fact: a U.S. citizen is killed by a police officer an estimated every 7 hours.

Even though Los Angeles crime statistics in 2017 shows that there have been fewer homicides in the city, particularly gang-related ones, police shootings have been on the rise lately.

In 2017, nearly 1,000 people were shot and killed by police officers across the U.S.

Fact: more shockingly, police violence resulted in the deaths of 1,129 people in the U.S. in 2017, with the vast majority of fatalities (718) being suspects in nonviolent offenses (traffic violations or even no crime at all).

It makes the police violence statistics in 2017 even more disturbing given that only 12 officers were charged with a crime related to police misconduct. That’s only 1 percent!

Interestingly, 43 of the cops in question had shot or killed a U.S. citizen before. Other 12 had previously shot or killed multiple U.S. citizens.

Holding police accountable for violence in 2018

With thousands of police officers using excessive force, sexually assaulting, engaging in police brutality, falsely arresting and shooting U.S. citizens with impunity, the importance of being legally represented by a Los Angeles police misconduct attorney cannot be overestimated.

In a world where police officers are indicted in less than 1% of killings of U.S. citizens, seeking justice in U.S. courts – in which police officers are oftentimes offered investigatorial immunity – can be done only with the help of a police misconduct lawyer to obtain compensation for your injuries, damages and losses.

Here at JML Law, our finest attorneys offer superb legal help to victims of all forms of police misconduct in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California: